Pop Culture: All quiet on the auto front

All that time and expense to make vehicles quieter, now they have to be louder.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants electric and hybrid vehicles to make more noise when traveling at low speeds.

Geesh. All that time and expense to make vehicles quieter, now they have to be louder.

It’s like building cars that can go 140 mph, then reducing the speed limit. Like that would ever happen ...

A noise requirement, of course, is an issue of safety. Because electric and hybrids are quieter than conventional automobiles, it isn’t as easy for pedestrians to hear them coming.

NHTSA estimates that the “new noise” would prevent 2,800 pedestrian and cyclist injuries during the life of each model year of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Another idea considered by the agency, but quickly rejected: Outlaw pedestrians.

The proposal is for speeds under 18 mph. Anything faster, and the cars make enough sound, the agency said.

I wonder how anyone arrived at 18 for the cutoff. Why not 20? It seems arbitrary. It was probably determined by the same panel that established a thermometer system that set freezing and boiling points at non-rounded numbers. That’s understandable, though. You can’t cheat physics.

Anyway, the noise-lift does make sense. The next question is, how do you “add sound” to a too-quiet machine?

My suggestion: Install an audio chip that broadcasts the sound of a Model-A John Deere.

Problem with that is, although it would do well to alert walkers, joggers and bicyclists with a 400-meter circumference, it might drive anyone inside the vehicle a little batty.

Regarding noise inside the cabin: Does the sound then shut off after the 18 mph point? If you’re cruising at 17, you’d hear noise; at 19, you don’t. What if you’re in a zone that’s around 15 to 20 mph? Would that become annoying?

Perhaps I’m too worried about all this.

I like the idea of an electric car, noisy or not. I’m waiting for the price to come down. By the time I reach an affordability point, wind-energy cars will be in vogue.

I’m not sure if they’ll need to make those noisier as well. A bigger problem will be too many drivers blowing through stop signs.

Dennis Volkert is features editor at the Sturgis Journal. Contact him at volkert@sturgisjournal.com.